IT is nearly two centuries since Yorkshire pioneered the early railway that gave birth to the first Northern Powerhouse. Rail shaped the growth of Yorkshire, bringing great wealth to the region, and the men who designed and built the network were among the most celebrated figures of the Victorian era.

Mr Goodwill has welcomed today’s ground-breaking figures showing that there are 139.000 more people in work across the Yorkshire and Humber and over 2.3 million more people across the United Kingdom back in work having the security of a regular pay packet than in 2010.

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, asked 15,000 of its supporters to nominate their favourite UK town or city for romantic walks and say why they had chosen it. The entries were narrowed down based on the number of nominations received and the most romantic reasons given, and put up for public vote. Scarborough fought off competition from Chester, London, Oxford and Glasgow to win, taking 28 per cent of the vote.

This week Mr Goodwill signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, in doing so pledging his commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day and honouring those who were murdered during the Holocaust as well as paying tribute to the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educate young people.